On the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato, Vol. I

...ἡ τῆς ῥάχεως ἄκρ γεννᾶται the tip of the spine is generated, yet in such a way that between ἄκρ and γεννᾶται a space of about fourteen letters has been left, whereas in the Marcianus it is written ἡ τῆς ῥάχεως ἄκρον καὶ γεννᾶται the tip of the spine is also generated. It is easily understood, however, that that καὶ also/and was ineptly inserted by some scribe to fill the gap34. Finally, in innumerable places, the readings of the Aldine and the Marcianus, whether good or bad, agree. Therefore, they are derived from one and the same source, and yet they are not entirely similar to one another; for upon instituting a comparison, you will find that the Aldine provides readings that are sometimes better and sometimes worse than the Marcianus. And it is superior in two things especially: one, that it has fewer gaps than the Marcianus; for in the latter we detect more than sixty noted by the scribe, in the former, as we just said, nearly twenty; the other, that it is entirely devoid of that negligence by which the scribe of the manuscript M—or perhaps even the exemplar proposed to him—deceived by words of the same or similar endings repeated within a short interval by the writer, wandered to another line so as to omit the intervening words, with the exception of a few places, since it admitted such an error of the eyes only in these places: p. 241 K after the beginning, concerning which passage we already argued in Quaest. Crit. Spec. prim. Critical Questions, First Specimen p. 16, p. 500 after the beginning, where we read: λογισμοῦ δ’ ἔνιοι μὲν ἔμοιγε δοκοῦσιν οὐδέποτε. ναὶ μὰ Δί’, ἦν δ’ ἐγώ of reason, some indeed seem to me never to partake. Yes, by Zeus, I said, which passage, copied from Plato's Republic book IV p. 441 B, Charterius finally restored thus: — οὐδέποτε μεταλαμβάνειν, οἱ δὲ πολλοὶ ὀψέ ποτε. ναὶ κ. τ. λ. never to partake, but the many only late, yes, etc., p. 570 in the middle, where A: ἐρυθρότατον μὲν γάρ ἐστιν (sc. τὸ τοῦ ἥπατος ἴδιον σῶμα) ὥστε τὸ αἷμα καὶ τῷ πεπῆχθαι μόνον ὑπὸ τοῦ περιέχοντος γίγνεται, σβεννύουσα μὲν ἐξ αὐτοῦ τὴν θερμότητα, μελαίνουσα δὲ διὰ τὴν ψύξιν. οὐχ οὕτως καὶ κατὰ τὸ ἧπαρ, ἀλλ’ ὑπό γε τῆς ἐμφύτου θερμασίας κοσμούσης αὐτὸ μᾶλλον ἢ φθειρούσης for it is very red (the proper body of the liver), so that the blood is formed only by being thickened by the surrounding, extinguishing the heat from it, and blackening it through the cold. It is not so with the liver, but rather by the innate heat adorning it more than destroying it, at which place Charterius acutely saw that several words had fallen out between μόνον and ὑπὸ τοῦ περιέχοντος and supplied it thus: μόνον αὐτοῦ διαφέρον· θρόμβου μὲν γὰρ ἡ πῆξις ὑπὸ τοῦ π. κ. τ. λ. differing only in this; for the clotting of the clot is by the surrounding, etc., with which we agree in such a way that for ὥστε we read ὥσπερ and for θρόμβου μὲν...

34) Cf. a little below, where we discuss more about this passage, which is found in ed. K. p. 747 after the middle.